What consultants need to know before they open for business with Nathan Allotey

In this episode, Matt Medeiros interviews Nathan Allotey, a digital marketing strategist, web designer and freelancer who has the experience building websites for customers that are not necessarily dependent on WordPress. He and Matt discuss how the project drives the framework for website creation.

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What consultants need to know before they open for business with Nathan Allotey

An online marketer does not need to lead their business with WordPress as the focus. (2:37)

Clients really just want traffic to get to their website. (3:40)

Your business structure should be designed to sustain you over the full year. (5:45)

Small businesses often do not have the money or understanding to invest in the long-term strategy. (6:01)

When working with a client, make sure you address additional business opportunities that can come from the discovery process. Nathan often asks the client to define success with the question “If everything were to go perfectly with the project you contacted me for, what would you want to happen?” (6:54)

Ask the client to define failure in the project that you are investigating as well. (7:42)

Asking a client about successes and failures can open up avenues of additional opportunities to working with them. (9:18)

When creating a web presence, small businesses will start up not understanding everything that is needed for success.

You need to discover what is important and crucial to the client. (10:58)

Do what you can to get income and reach your goals. “Hustle” with urgency and extra effort to accomplish what you set out to do. (21:33)

You need to write down your goal and share it with other people. (22:56)

Pricing your services or product offerings is a skill needed in business. (26:00)

Deliver maximum value with higher prices and different options. Show the client how they will make money with the additional investment. (30:15)

Teach what you know right now. Do not wait until you are the expert. (38:04)

There is no quick fix to get traffic to your site. The organic way is the way to grow. (40:00)

Expectations for long-term business:

You need to learn the difference between customer assumptions and customer service. Don’t let the client assume that ongoing updates are part of the website cost. (12:18)

Define future opportunities with the client in a clear manner. (12:46)

It is important to communicate the options with the client for future business. (14:39)

Offer the additional service (ex: Google Analytics) so that the client becomes aware of what it takes to run a business. (16:32)